


It knew no Medicine

by middlemarch



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Delirium, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Related, Prayer, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-04
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-29 01:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8469700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: A fever-dream, awakening.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BroadwayBaggins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BroadwayBaggins/gifts).



Mama had been right. Mary had heard her voice this morning, when she woke, when the aching in her head pushed her from the dizzying sleep that had taken her the night before, and she had not been able to help crying with the pain. She’d heard her mother’s voice telling her crisply that God would always answer her prayers, if she prayed hard enough and it was more real than anything else had been, the sodden bedclothes, the sunlight too bright, the thirst that was sudden and inescapable and had finally driven her from her bed. She’d wanted him, oh! how much but she couldn’t tell if she’d spoken the prayer aloud or if the words had rattled around in her head like buttons in the sewing basket. But he was there, now just beyond her reach, if only she could make him hear her; she called his name but he hardly turned, held himself easily as he always had. She spoke as she would if they were in the room alone, though the oak stair of Mansion House was firm beneath her bare foot and she sensed the murmur of others around her, Matron and Anne and a nun in a habit like a mockingbird. The pain in her head was sharp now and she had a moment’s awareness of feeling ill, so very ill, but she wanted him to come up the stairs and take her hand, put his arm around her and scold her for leaving the bed _Mareike liebling, du solltest nicht_ but he didn’t hear her, didn’t see her and she couldn’t find the breath to call again. She’d closed her eyes, against the fear that was all around her, beating with her heart, _alone alone all alone_ , and opened them to find him holding her hand in his gentle grasp, saying something softly _Come back to me_ and Gustav was gone, that clear grey gaze she’d dreamt. It was Jedediah before her, worried as she had not seen him before, and she felt the weight of her unbound hair down her back, how lightly he pushed back a damp curl from her forehead, how improper but she had prayed, so hard, and God had sent them both, the vision and the reality, but it was all jumbled, Emma was beside her now, smelling of lavender and camphor, and she knew she had shamed herself but she hadn’t had a choice… She shook her head and stumbled and felt Jed’s hand, his arm on hers steady her, the clipped drawl of him cursing when he saw her room and then she was held in his arms, his voice uneven to her in the fever she now vaguely recognized _get you well_ and _Mary_ and _beautiful_. The bed was his and the room and his dark eyes upon her and he promised. Her mama had been right, prayers were always answered and she would have told him but he laid a hand against her cheek, stroked it, and told her to sleep again _not going anywhere_ spoken _darling darling_ unsaid.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a remix of sorts based on a story broadwaybaggins wrote today so I hope she posts hers here as well. Both are based on the latest trailer for Season 2 of Mercy Street. I have included a little German but I think context will be enough to manage it.
> 
> The title is from Emily Dickinson.


End file.
